


Public Welfare Service 


Bulletin No. 2 


(Fifth Edition) 
1925 


fe Ll 


ELECTRICITY 


Cie 


How It Is Made and How Distributed 





For Use of School Students, English and 
Current Topics Classes and Debating Clubs 


Issued by 
ILLINOIS COMMITTEE on PUBLIC UTILITY INFORMATION 
125 South Clark Street - - - Chicago, Illinois 


(Additional copies will be furnished on request.) 





ELECTRICITY — Lhe Giant Energy 


Introductory: 


Electricity has been called the giant energy. 
Within the memory of men now living it has 
revolutionized the world. It has made possible, 
within half a century, greater progress than in 
all the 500,000 years of history which preceded it 
and which science gives to the career of man on 
earth. 

Man has learned to harness, distribute and util- 
ize this magic power for day and night service 
throughout the civilized world. It is banishing 
darkness, has lightened the burden of the house- 
wife and has become the silent partner of in- 
dustry. 

The story of the development of the use of 
electricity is a fascinating recital. It is a story 
of progress. Electricity has brought about a rev- 
olution in industry, for it has enabled one man to 
do the work of many men, and made possible 
huge production in our factories, rapid transpor- 
tation and better living conditions in our homes. 
It has built our great cities and industrial centers. 
It has torn away the barriers of time and distance 
and made all men neighbors. Through radio it 
has brought entertainment and knowledge to 
millions. 


Your Thirty Slaves’: 


The Smithsonian Institution has figured that 
if all our machinery operated by electrical and 
steam power should be taken away, it would re- 
quire the services of 30 times as many hard- 
working slaves as we have population to dupli- 
cate the work done in America. In other words, 
the use of power and machinery gives to every 
man, woman and child in our country the equiv- 
alent of 30 slaves, or the average family of five 
has 150 “slaves” working for it. 

But instead of this army of slaves we have 
electricity working for us at a “wage” so small 
as to bring its services within reach of the poorest 
man’s pocketbook; a sum so small as would not 
even pay for what a servant would eat. 

Push a button and our homes are illuminated 
as by the midday sun; an electric vacuum cleaner 
is banishing dirt and dust; electric washing 
machines and irons are helping with the house- 
work; an electric fan gives cooling breezes or 
an electric heater gives forth warmth; an elec- 
tric range is ready for the cooking of a meal; 
the electric refrigerator generates ice, or the 
countless other labor saving devices are in action. 

Electricity rings the door bell, or it tows a ship 
through the Panama Canal, lifts a great bridge, 
pulls a train over the mountains, increases the 
efficiency of a modern factory by providing vastly 


increased and better direct illumination and by 
supplying a more efficient and easily controlled 
motive power. It milks the cows of the farmer, 
chops his feed and does a multitude of other 
things. It lights the home, the store and the 
factory. It provides the light by which the sur- 
geon in the hospital performs his operations. It 
has been made available, at any hour day or 
night, through the tremendous efforts of the na- 
tion’s electrical utility companies. 

Yet it was only a short time ago—less than 50 
years—that even the richest kings had none of 
the commonplace conveniences which brighten 
the lives of the poorest Americans today. 


The Great Minds of Electricity: 


Many great minds have contributed to the de- 
velopment of the present-day electric central-sta- 
tion systems through which our electricity is 
provided. If only one name were to be men- 
tioned, it would undoubtedly be that of Thomas 
A. Edison. But before Edison, with his marvel- 
ous inventions, and contemporary with him a 
host of other electrical scientists and inventors © 
have contributed their part. 


Such men as Dr. William Gilbert, Benjamin 
Franklin, Luigi Galvani, Alesandro Volta, Sir 
Humphry Davy, H. C. Oersted, A. M. Ampere, 
G. S. Ohm, Charles Wheatstone, Michael Fara- 
day, Joseph Henry, Z. T. Gramme, J. C. Max- 
well, A. Pacinotti, S. Z. deFerranti, Werner von 
Siemens, Lord Kelvin and many others did very 
important work. Since Edison’s discoveries 
other scientists, among them Dr. Charles A. 
Steinmetz, have added achievements of great 
value. ~ 


Early Inventions: 


Although the electric light and power business, 
as we know it today, is a development of com- 
paratively recent origin, the foundations for it 
were laid by early experimenters in the Seven- 
teenth and Eighteenth centuries. Back in 1600, 
Dr. Gilbert, an English physician, conducted 
numerous experiments and made many important 
discoveries, but it was nearly a century and a half 
later before any great progress was made by 
others who studied the subject. 

Benjamin Franklin’s demonstration by his fa- 
mous kite experiment in 1752, proving that light- 
ning is an electrical phenomenon, is well known. 
About 1790, Galvani discovered a current of elec- 
tricity. Up to that time electricity had been de- 
veloped only by friction. Volta developed the 
electric battery in 1800. Oersted of Copenhagen 


a 


“pf i ef. Bul Ad , a eh > og mn. _ Fad 


a 


/ 


Com. o 
discovered in 1820 the magnetic effect of electric 
current. This paved the way for the later devel- 
opments of electrical machinery. Michael Fara- 
day of England discovered in 1831 the basic prin- 
ciples on which dynamo electric machines are 
designed. Many other scientists and inventors 
made important discoveries during the early part 
of the Nineteenth century. 

The telegraph was the first great electrical in- 
vention. It was invented by Morse in 1837. Elec- 
tro plating was perfected about the same time. 
The electric motor was developed about 1873. 
Radio is a development of the present genera- 
tion. 


The First Central Station: 


Development of the electrical industry, how- 
ever, really dates from Sept. 4, 1882, the day on 
which there was opened in New York city, the 


first central electricity generating station in the 


world. This plant, known as the Pearl street sta- 
tion, furnished electricity for lighting in a re- 
stricted territory in downtown Manhattan. 
Edison had invented the electric light three 
years previously on Oct. 21, 1879, but until the 
opening of the Pearl street station, it was little 
more than a display or a curiosity. There were 
also in various parts of the country a few isolated 
electric light plants supplying individual custom- 
ers. The inauguration of service from Pearl 
street, however, marked a new epoch, because it 
was the pioneer of the modern electric generating 
and distribution systems. From the plan origin- 
ally conceived by Edison, practically all electrical 
energy in the United States today is generated 
and distributed by central station companies. 


The first central station only four decades ago 
served 59 customers. Today the electrical in- 
dustry has expanded to 6,355 operating com- 
panies, serving approximately 15,750 communi- 
ties and 16,377,605 customers, of whom 13,252,985 
take residential lighting service. The number of 
customers of electric light and power companies 
in the United States doubled in the six years 
from 1909 to 1915, and doubled again in the next 
six years from 1915 to 1921. The increase today 
is at the rate of more than 2,000,000 a year. 


The Pearl Street station had six generators 
with a total generating capacity of 559.5 kilo- 
watts. The generating capacity of all plants in 
the United States at the beginning of 1925 was 
about 18,840,000 kilowatts or 25,200,000 horse 
power. 


The output of electricity in 1924 set a new high 
record, the total being 59,013,590,000 kilowatt 
hours, according to reports of the U. S. Geological 
Survey. The Commonwealth Edison Company, 
which serves Chicago, in 1924 had an output of 
2,787 ,090,000 kilowatt hours, the largest produc- 
tion of any steam central station company in the 
world. An illustration of the rapid development 
of the electrical industry is shown by the fact 
that the Commonwealth Edison Company had a 
generating capacity of only about 640 kilowatts 
in 1888. In 1924 it was 810,000 kilowatts. 

Today the electric light and power industry 
represents an investment of approximately $6,- 
600,000,000 and about $800,000,000 is spent an- 
nually for new plants and extensions to meet the 
ever-increasing demands for service. The gross 
revenue of the electric light and power companies 
of the country in 1924 was $1,350,100,000. The 
industry is owned by over 2,500,000 men and 
women investors, as well as banks, insurance 
companies and others, their money providing 
funds for building the great system whose serv- 
ices are available to all of the people. 


Where Electricity Comes From: 


The public obtains its electrical energy, which 
we have been picturing, from central generating 
plants or “Central Stations” as they are called, 
where electricity can be produced in large quan- 
tities and sent out from advantageously located 
centers to supply the needs of the people—to 
make their lamps burn, to operate their factory 
machines, to make street cars and interurban cars 
go, to supply the electric flat irons and the elec- 
tric fans, and for all the thousands of uses for 
which electricity is employed. 

Electricity can be produced most economically 
by the use of large generating units, and it can 
also be transmitted and distributed to the great- 
est advantage if all the electrical needs of a large 


Statistical Data Showing Development of Electric Light and Power Industry 


in the United States During the Last 23 Years 





1902 1912 1920 


1921 = 1922 1923 1924 


—— | SSSS S _ 


Capital Invested ...... 
Gross Revenue ........ 
Capacity in Kilo- 


$504,740,352|$2, 175,678,266 |$3,688,597,000)$4,658,000,000)$5,100,000,000}$5,800,000,000}$6,600,000,000 
$ 78,735,500|$ 302,273,398)$ 932,000,000|$ 983,000,000/$1,084,000,000|$1,300,000,000}$1,350,100,000 


UES TE fe teen 1,212,200 5,165,439 13,000,000 14,466,915 17,725,484 18,558,800 18,840,000 
No. of Customers 

Pitotal) <2 ii ns..d. 1,465,060 3,837,518 9,597,997 10,794,084 12,353,790 13,710,000 16,377,605 

Residence ............-. 7,465,900 8,467,600 9,903,830 11,030,000 13,252,985 

Commercial .......... 1,744,500 1,896,900 1,988,020 2,205,000 2,524,705 

Power  cececcecesceeeeceeee 387,597 429,584 461,940 475,000 599,915 


Total Generation in 
Kilowatt-hours .... 


2,507,051,515)11,569,109,885/40,288,264,000|37,902,445,725 |44,084,575,000/51,498,450,000|59,013,590,000 





community or a number of small communities 
are supplied from one common system of wires. 
Therefore, the modern tendency is for the small 
individual community central station of earlier 
years to disappear, being replaced by the sub- 
stations (or local distributing stations) of large 
systems, giving the smaller towns the benefits 
and economies of the great system. 

There are two kinds of electricity made and 
distributed by a central station—‘“direct” and 
“alternating.” Direct, or continuous current, 
constantly flows in one direction. This kind of 
current, because it cannot be sent any great dis- 
tance, is used largely in the congested centers of 
populous cities. Alternating current flows first 
in one direction, then reverses, but so fast that 
the changes cannot be detected in an electric 
light by the naked eye, except in low cycles, in 
which it is visible. This has resulted in adop- 
tion of a general standard of 60 cycles for light- 
ing. Alternating current can be sent, economi- 
cally, hundreds of miles, and therefore, is now 
used almost universally. 


How Electricity Is Made Available: 


Electricity is produced from some form of heat 
energy, as that obtained by the combustion of 
coal, oil, gas or wood; from some form of 
mechanical energy like that of falling water 
or (to a slight extent) wind power, or from 
chemical energy, as in batteries. In the case of 
waterpower plants the momentum of the falling 
water is used to turn waterwheels which in turn 
operate electric generators. The water may be 
comparatively small in amount, but of great 
pressure because of a high fall or it may be of 
low pressure and of much volume, or of any 
combination of these characteristics. 


The most desirable class of streams for water 
power developments are those having a fairly 
constant flow throughout the year. This covers 
a comparatively small number of streams. Next 
in desirability are those with a large percentage 
of the maximum water flow for most of the year. 
Utilization of these is more expensive because 
sufficient water is not available throughout the 


year unless expensive storage facilities are pro- 
vided. 


Then there are “flashy” streams—erratic and 
experiencing sudden and short flood periods with 
intervening periods of little or no water. They 
are uneconomical for development. This class 
includes many Middle Western streams. 


Water power development also may be un- 
economical if the proposed site is so far from 
the power market as to make necessary an ex- 
tremely expensive transmission line, or because 
of large power losses through transmission over 
a great distance. Because most of the streams 
in Illinois are in the “flashy” class very little 
water power has been developed in this state. 

Electric generating plants sometimes are built 
right at the coal mine in Illinois and other states. 


This is seldom practical, however, as efficient 
operation of turbines requires from 500 to 700 
tons of water for every ton of coal burned, to 
chill the condenser tubes and to condense steam 
after it has done its work in the turbines. 


In New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston 
and other large cities more water is pumped for 
condensing purposes in electric generating sta- 
tions than the city water works pump for all 
other purposes. This need of an abundance of 
water is an outstanding reason why more gen- 
erating plants cannot be built at the mouths of 
coal mines, where there rarely is a large water 
supply. 

At the central station the coal is handled by 
various forms of mechanical conveyors and 
crushers, themselves run by electricity, and de- 
livered to the automatic stokers of the furnaces 
without being touched by human hands. The 
other raw material (assuming that brains, la- 
bor and capital are not raw materials) is water, 
and it is delivered to the boilers, the steam pro- 
duced by the application of the heat of the burn- 
ing coal being led through pipes to steam tur- 
bines, where its expansive force and impact are 
used to turn the shafts of electric generators. 


The Turbine: 


The principle of the steam turbine is very 
simple. It is practically the same as the water 
turbine, and the water turbine is nothing but 
an elaborated water wheel. The latter receives 
its power from water pressure of rivers or reser- 
voirs of water stored so that when the water 
flows it strikes the blades of the wheel, rotating 
it and producing power, because of the pressure 
back of it. In like manner steam generated 
in central station boilers by coal is directed 
against the blades of a steam turbine which ro- 
tates from this impact, perhaps 1,800 times a 
minute, and produces power. To these turbines, 
“electric machines” or generators, as we now 
call them, are attached direct to the shaft with- 
out the use of belts. 


The energy we have so far pictured as being 
created in a central generating station is mechan- 
ical and not electrical energy, but right here, in 
the generator, the transformation takes place. 
The power that goes into the turbine as mechan- 
ical energy is taken from the generator at the 
other end of the shaft as electrical energy. 


In spite of the enormous power locked up in 
a modern generator, the principle of its work 
is founded on very simple laws. Early experi- 
ments by the famous Faraday (born in England, 
1791) marked the beginning of the electric 
generator, and the same laws that Faraday 
worked out are applied to the making of the huge 
generators of today, nothing of importance hav- 
ing been added except elaboration of machinery. 
Faraday first took a coil of wire and a magnet. 
Each time the magnet was thrust into the coil 
its magnetism was found to cause a flow of 


electricity in the coil, as shown by a compass 
near the coil of wire. The same phenomenon 
takes place when a generator rotates. A large 
magnet and several coils of wire connected in a 
circuit do the same work, only thousands of 
times more effectively. So long as the generator 
and turbine rotate a flow of electricity will be 
generated. In fact, nowadays, the turbine and 
the generator are so closely related that they are 
made by manufacturers in one complete unit 
known as a “turbo-generator.” 


The electricity which comes from the genera- 
tors is so powerful that it must be very care- 
fully controlled. This is accomplished by means 
of various copper switching devices. Copper 
is used because it is one of the best conductors 
of electricity, and relatively cheap. Alternating 
current is often raised to high voltages, because 
at high pressure it can be economically trans- 
mitted long distances by comparatively small 
copper wires, and its voltage can be changed by 
transformers. Direct current is not adaptable 
for this long-distance, high-voltage transmission, 
and its voltage cannot be changed by trans- 
formers. 


The Transfo rmer: 


Although high-voltages are necessary for 
transmission lines, electricity is generated and is 
used for lighting and power purposes at low 
voltages. 


Transformers are used, therefore, to “step” the 
voltage up as the current comes from the gener- 
ator and to “step” it down when it leaves the 
transmission line. Sometimes huge transformers 
are used in “sub-stations” from which energy is 
distributed to large sections of a city or to small 
towns, but the transformers which are a familiar 
sight on poles in streets or alleys, finally reduce 
the pressure to a safe point for domestic use and 
send it into the dozen or more houses in the 
midst of which the transformer is located. 


The Basic Laws of Electrical Energy: 


Something very interesting takes place within 
the transformer and if our eyes could see elec- 
tricity we should see a remarkable phenomenon 
going on all the time in each one of these little 
iron boxes. We have already noted above, in 
connection with the generator, that when a piece 
of magnetized iron was moved through a coil of 
wire electricity was produced. Early experi- 
menters found another truth which naturally 
followed: viz., that when electricity flowed 
through a coil of wire around a piece of iron 
magnetism was produced in the iron. These 
two principles taken together illustrate how a 
transformer works. Suppose we think of elec- 
trical energy as it travels from the power sta- 
tion along transmission lines into the transformer 
box. There it runs into a coil of wire which 
surrounds a piece of iron. The electricity in the 
coil magnetizes the iron and the magnetized iron 


in its turn produces electricity in another coil, 
which is around the magnet but entirely separ- 
ate from the first coil. The pressure in-the coils 
is proportionate to the turns of wire. The more 
wires in either of these two coils the more pres- 
sure we have; therefore, if one coil has ten times 
as many wires as the other, or “secondary” coil, 
the pressure at the other, or “secondary,” side 
of the transformer will be reduced to one-tenth 
of what it was when it entered it. 


From the other side of the transformer elec- 
tricity is led at low pressure into the house or 
factory through a service switch where it can 
be turned on or off, and then through a meter, 
which measures the current. After that it is 
available for toasters, irons and the dozens of 
other houshold uses. In the case of the large 
neighborhood sub-stations, power taken from the 
secondary side of the large transformers may be 
used to operate street railways or street lighting 
circuits. 


How Electricity Has Revolutionized 
Industry: 


Electricity has made America machineland. 
There are no less than 3,000 uses for electricity. 
Most of them are in industry, but the use of elec- 
tricity for power, as well as for lighting and heat- 
ing in the home, is growing steadily. 

While the use of electrical energy for driving 
motors is its most common employment in in- 
dustry, aside from illumination, it is being used 
more and more for generating heat and bring- 
ing about chemical reactions in many manufac- 
turing processes. 

In the latter field electricity has a wide use in 
electro-chemistry, a department of industrial en- 
deavor with which most people are not familiar. 
In electro-chemistry, electricity is used to break 
down, build up, cover, uncover, separate and 
blend. Some remarkable accomplishments result. 

These are probably better understood by refer- 
ence to the experiment conducted in school lab- 
oratories of reducing water to its component 
parts, hydrogen and oxygen, by passing an elec- 
tric current through it. That is an example of 
breaking down. Electro-plating is an example of 
the building up process. In electro-plating, cop- 
per plates are immersed in a solution of silver 
nitrate and by passing current through the solu- 
tion, silver is deposited on one of the plates. 

There are many other reactions brought about 
by electricity on a large scale which are the basis 
of the electro-chemistry industry. Eighty per 
cent of the copper produced in the United States 
is separated from the ore by electricity. Gold 
and silver are separated from ore in the same 
way. Aluminum, nickel and silver are “recov- 
ered” from ore and waste. Almost all gold plated 
jewelry is gilded by electrolysis. 

Use of electricity for smelting ore is a compar- 
atively recent development. Making of “electric 
steel” is a fast-growing industry. 


By using electricity, vanadium and chrome— 
new kinds of steel—were produced. ‘These are 
used for automobile and airplane parts and for 
castings where a perfect texture is necessary. 
Electric steel is also utilized in making tools 
such as drilling bits which must stand hard wear. 

Electric heat is being applied to iron, nickel, 
copper, silver, brass and bronze and other non- 
ferrous metals. Electric furnaces produce such 
electro-chemical “mysteries” as ferro manganese, 
silican, tungsten, molybdenum, chromium and 
titanium, abrasive materials such as carborun- 
dum, alaxite and magnesite. 

During recent years electricity has been used 
for operating electric ranges to a very great ex- 
tent in those communities which do not have gas 
available. Through perfecting of this appliance 
the housewife in the smaller community is able 
to cook as efficiently, cleanly and with the same 
degree of comfort as is possible in the larger 
cities. In Illinois there are more than 6,000 elec- 
tric ranges in use at the present time. 

Electricity is being used extensively in coal 
mining. In Illinois, alone, hundreds of mines 
purchase all or part of their power from central 
stations. Formerly, when coal mine operators 
generated their own electricity, 20 pounds of 
coal were burned to produce one kilowatt hour. 
As modern central stations produce this same 
energy with only 2% pounds of coal, a great 
conservation of fuel has taken place and the cost 
of power used in mining coal has been lowered. 

The great development of the future will prob- 
ably be electrification of the railroads. The ex- 
perimental stage of electrification of the railroads 
seems to be past. The terminals of several im- 
portant railroads have been electrified in certain 
cities, including the Illinois Central Railroad in 
Chicago and suburbs, and in Montana, Idaho and 
Washington a railroad has electrified its lines 
across the mountains for more than 600 miles. 
Four thousand-ton trains go up and down heavy 
mountain grades under perfect control at speeds 
never known before and with a regularity that 
leaves no doubt as to the practicability. of elec- 
trification. 


What an Electrical Map of the 
U.S. A. Would Look Like: 


If one could see, upon a map of the United 
States, outlines of systems for generating, trans- 
mitting and distributing electricity the impres- 
sion would be something like that of seeing a 
number of inter-connected spider-webs, each 
large generating station being the center of its 
own web. Each system may have several gen- 
erating stations, the whole network being tied 
together in such a way that the breakdown of a 
machine in one generating station or the failure 
of a sub-station would not, usually, mean loss of 
service to the customer, other sources of supply 
being available in emergency. 

Already many farms have electricity delivered 
to them by the central station plants and it is to 





be expected that within a short time the rural 
districts will have the same efficient and modern 
service as is possible in the thickly populated 
cities. As farmers develop more uses for elec- 
tricity, the extension of service will be more 
rapid. 

The same plants that serve the cities, now fur- 
nish service to the smaller communities and to 
the farms. They are no longer local distributors, 
but reach out as far as their wires are strung. 
One company, alone, may serve hundreds of com- 
munities from its central station energy—produc- 
ing plants. That is why the rendering of 
service is now regulated by the state. It has out- 
grown its original city boundaries. 


The Illinois Super-Power System: 


The first electric generating stations and dis- 
tribution systems were constructed in large 
cities, such as Chicago and New York, only 
about 35 or 40 years ago. 


At first many small stations were constructed 
in the same city to serve very restricted areas 
which did not exceed two miles square. The art 
of generating and distributing electric energy 
rapidly advanced so that about 15 years after the 
completion of the first plants we find that in the 
large cities many of these small plants were su- 
perseded by very much larger generating stations 
which supplied the entire community. 


About 20 or 25 years ago small plants were 
also constructed in medium sized cities and 
smaller communities of not less than 5,000 inhab- 
itants. At this time, therefore, only a relatively 
small proportion of these people of any country 
living in cities or towns were able to secure any 
electric service, because in the state of the art 
when small plants were necessary for each com- 
munity, there remained thousands of small com- 
munities in which no electric service was supplied 
because of the impossibility of furnishing this 
service without financial loss. 






om | 
y 


~\ POWER PLANT 
han cou Som cage 
TRANSMISSION 
(> eae 
i 
Hty\ (SA 
me = 
' N i) — 4 
i RO i K 1 ftp x \e 
ti | YN least HIGH VOLTAGE BUPER-POWER LINE 


<> 


OUTDOOR HIGH VOLTAGE 
J ELECTRIC SWITCHING STATION 


Early Systems Small: 

The early systems in most small and medium- 
sized towns did not operate 24 hours per day 
but only from dusk to dawn over each night, 
since practically the entire business supplied in 
those days consisted of lighting. 

About 25 years ago the electric motor com- 
menced to develop and many of these plants were 
then operated throughout 24 hours per day in 
order to furnish motor power. This 24-hour op- 
eration was extended to only a portion of the 
plants in existence at that time, as in a great 
number of communities sufficient load in the day 
time could not be found to pay the additional 
expenses of operating the plant and system 
throughout the full day and night. 


The plants of 15 or 20 years ago in small and 
medium-sized communities proved to be expen- 
sive to operate and the rates for electric light 
and power service were therefore comparatively 
high—in fact so high that they would seem ri- 
diculous and impossible today. 


About 15 years ago the condensing steam tur- 
bine was developed in very much larger sizes 
than the reciprocating engine. It was found to 
be very much more economical in the use of coal 
and in addition could be built in very large units. 
Development of large stations became possible 
and it began to be generally recognized that the 
only way in which the advantages of the develop- 
ment of the electrical art could be extended to 
the smaller and medium-sized cities was by 
means of transmission lines which would receive 
their supply at one large generating station and 
transmit it for use_to a large number of commu- 
nities. This would permit of 24-hour service, it 
was found, and also of a reduction in electric 
rates, then something like 20 cents per kilowatt 
hour, which figure today is considered an exces- 
sive rate, but is charged in some Illinois towns 
where modern equipment is not used. 


Transmission Line Systems: 


Commencing about 10 years ago, transmission 
systems of this character were built. Large num- 
bers of isolated generating stations were dis- 
placed by the new service and all these commu- 
nities were then given 24-hour service in place 
of the former restricted supply. Thousands of 
communities, too small to operate an isolated 
plant, were given electric service for the first 
time at rates very much less than formerly 
charged in the larger communities which had the 
advantages of the early, small stations. 

Industries were furnished with power from the 
new systems which before that time had been 
compelled to generate power by installation of 
inefficient stations with resulting high costs of 
operation. Energy was furnished for great num- 
bers of domestic appliances used in homes, such 
as toasters, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, 
fans and finally the electric range. 

In no section of our country has this great 
development been more marked than in Illinois. 
Before the days when transmission lines were 
built, electric service was available to only about 
200 communities, and in the majority of cases 
only for part of the 24 hours. 


Illinois Stands High : 


At the present time, after a ten-year period of 
continuous construction of transmission lines 
throughout the state by many public service com- 
panies, electric service is being rendered to 1,188 
organized communities, 82 per cent of which are 
served by transmission lines, and are receiving 
24-hour service. Many of the smaller commu- 
nities, which are served by isolated generating 
stations, still have electricity available only part 
of the day. 

There are more than 7,000 miles of high-volt- 
age transmission lines in Illinois. The predom- 
inating voltage of these lines is 33,000, although 
some are as high as 132,000. Branching off from 
these great energy lines are thousands of miles 
of lateral wires which bring the electricity to the 
user, 

On January 1, 1925, there was installed and 











USE in operation in central stations of the state 
1,763,636 kilowatts or 2,364,000 horsepower of 

| generating capacity. 
pir AS FA Each customer of the central stations in IIli- 
ae APR -<EBr See Ps ah nois uses, on an average, 2,959 kilowatt hours of 
— ae UE UN é eee 99", gy ear angel : : aan 
a face" oe tay 2 de ene oct Gee, Cape inois ranks second among the states in the 
/| “BUILDING 1p | SS x aa fT te } number of electric customers served by central 


stations. It had, on January 1, 1925, 1,487,670 
customers, of which 124,874 were added during 
1924. The state ranks high, also, in the degree 
of saturation of lighting customers, 73.2 per cent 
of the homes being wired for electricity. 

Although Illinois has but 6.1 per cent of the 
population of the United States it has 9 per cent 
of the electric customers. 


SINE 





Super-Power in the Middle West: 


Super-power, or the inter-connection of large 
generating stations by high-voltage transmission 
lines, is not a development of Illinois alone. It 
is a development of areas whose boundaries are 
fixed by geographical barriers or economic con- 
ditions and not by state lines. 


Illinois’ great generating stations and trans- 
mission lines are part of a vast super-power Ssys- 
tem in which its energy resources are pooled 
with those of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, 
Iowa and Kentucky. Thousands of communities 
in these states are linked. together. 


Construction of a few additional transmission 
lines will extend this Middle West system east 
to Maryland and Virginia and west to Minne- 
sota and South Dakota. 


This continuous, rapid hooking-up of smaller 
systems gives rise to the belief that formation 
of one great super-power system extending from 
the Atlantic ocean to the Rocky Mountains is 
not far distant. 


Big Benefits Obtained: 


Illustrative of the economy of large generating 
stations is the saving of fuel. Small, isolated 
generating stations burn about 15 pounds of coal 
to generate one kilowatt hour of electricity. The 
large stations, such as are a part of the super- 
power system, consume, on an average only 2) 
pounds of coal per kilowatt hour. 


The benefits of this great gain in efficiency 
have been given to the customers in the form of 
lower rates than those originally charged by the 
smaller plants, 24-hour service to all communi- 
ties served and adequate power supplies for in- 
dustries at reasonable rates. Notwithstanding 
the fact that coal today costs 95 per cent more 
per ton than in pre-war times, the average rates 
now charged are very much less than the average 


rates ten years ago in these same communities. 


If such systems had not been constructed, the 
average rates now prevailing would be at least 
50 to 80 per cent higher in order to pay the cost 
of operating the smaller, inefficient stations. 


Inter-connection Assures 
Continuous Service: 


Another advantage of super-power is that it 
insures a continuous electricity supply to com- 
munities, even in an emergency. 


Should a tornado, earthquake, fire or other ca- 
tastrophy put out of service the generating sta- 
tion of a community which is a part of a super- 
power system, other communities in the system, 
even though many miles away, could each fur- 
nish the stricken town some electricity and the 
aggregate power thus furnished would enable 
the place so disabled to “carry on.” This has 
been done many times. 


The importance of this protection is realized 
when it is considered that in many towns water 
for fire protection and sanitation is pumped by 
electricity. 


Also, a sudden, large demand for electricity, 
such as for irrigation pumps during a severe 
drought, can be met by super-power. 


After most of the existing transmission sys- 
tems in Illinois have been inter-connected, and 
the loads served by these systems continue to 
increase to much larger amounts, there will un- 
doubtedly be constructed new, large—capacity, 
high-voltage trunk lines, or true super-power 
lines, which will serve as feeder lines to the 
existing transmission systems at a large number 
of intersecting points. Such super-power lines 
will receive their supply of energy from very 
large central stations of the most efficient type, 
and the development of such a system will en- 
able the more inefficient stations still operating 
to be discontinued gradually. The existing trans- 
mission lines will then occupy the relative posi- 
tion of primary distribution lines, with the new 
trunk lines serving as the transmission source. 
Such a development will not render useless any 
of the systems now in service, but on the con- 
trary serves to increase their usefulness and thus 
enable increased supply to all of the communi- 
ties served to keep up with the growth of these 
communities. 


Electricity Cannot be Stored: 


One characteristic of electrical power which 
has an interesting bearing on central station en- 
terprises is that it cannot be stored. This is not 
literally true, because you are familiar with dry 
batteries and the larger storage batteries, but for 
general power purposes in large cities batteries 
are not practical, except as an emergency reserve. 


The result is that when a customer of a central 
station company makes a “demand” upon the 
company for electricity by turning a switch, the 
company must be prepared to supply this demand 
instantaneously and it must likewise be pre- 
pared to supply all of the simultaneous demands 
of all of its customers. 


Unfortunately central stations cannot make up 
in advance enough electricity to supply their cus- 
tomers for a day or a week or a month, as a store 
stocks up with goods in advance of its custom- 
ers’ demands. This very fact requires that the 
central station maintain a plant and equipment 
large enough to deliver the huge amounts of elec- 
tricity for the dark and busy days of December, 
even though during the month of June, when the 
days are long, a much smaller plant costing very 
much less money might suffice. 


Similarly plant and equipment must be large 
enough to take care of the very heavy demands 
of the late afternoons of winter months, whereas 
during the rest of the day and night only a small 


ILLINOIS 
INTER- 
CONNECTED 
ELECTRICITY 
SYSTEMS 


i if Farmingtony’ 
4 v 'e 
é SO Hee | di 


| Decatur Ee 
[ 


Lowe we 


Marshall 


© Centralia 


Mt.Vernon 
. eo 


This map shows the 
location of the high 
tension electric trans- 
mission lines, ranging 
from 2,300 to 132,000 
volts, which compose 
the “backbone” of the 
great energy systems of 
the companies serving 
the state’s people. Ra- 
diating from these Jonesboro | 
“trunk lines” are thou- 
sands of miles of dis- 
tribution lines, covering the state 
like a closely woven web, which 
carry the electricity into the homes, 
offices and factories. 


Sea pe a eed rece ra 





fraction of that amount of electricity would be 
demanded. These highest points of “demand” 
are called the “peak load” and the central station 
managers always have to figure on investing 
enough money to take care of the “peak load.” 


Watching the Service Demand: 


Let us go to the electric lighting company and 
see just how electricity is made to do its work. 
We walk into the office of the operating man- 
ager of one of these companies. One of the man- 
ager’s duties is to watch the traffic. He is the 
guardian over the flow of electricity. Every min- 
ute of the day he can tell something interesting 
about what the citizens of his community are do- 
ing. Before him he has a long sheet on which 
lines indicate the rise and fall in the use of 
the service he is furnishing. His fingers are on 
the “pulse” every minute. The line which he is 
watching is called the “load,” which simply 
means the total amount of service being used at 
a given moment. 

We will watch him for a day. Let us say this 
particular manager is manager of your local elec- 
tric company. In the larger companies there is 
a man assigned to this work solely, and he is 
called the “load dispatcher.” 

It is 5 o’clock in the morning. The line is 
running along straight. It is 5:30 A. M.; the 
line commences energetically to start upwards. 
Some people are rising and turning on the lights. 
It is 6 A. M.; the line has shot far up. Many 
people are getting up, but it is still dusk, and 
they must have light. It is 7 A. M.; the line has 
taken an almost perpendicular upturn. Prac- 
tically everybody in town is now up; some are 
using electricity to read the morning paper, some 
for cooking; the street car systems have put on 
many cars hauling people to work; the industries 
have turned on electricity for operating the big 
machines. It is 8 o’clock; his line shows that out 
in the residence districts but little current is be- 
ing used now, but in the manufacturing centers, 
the load is tremendous. So he watches the cur- 
rent that started to go to the residential district 
shift to the manufacturing district. The street 
car load is much less now than it was while peo- 
ple were going to work. 


It is mid-day. The residential district load has’ 


“picked up” a little. Some women are ironing, 
others using sewing machines, washing ma- 
chines, or vacuum cleaners, still others are cook- 
ing lunch. 

Afternoon sees his line up near the top of his 
sheet and keeping steady. Most of the current 
is being used in the manufacturing plants. 

Five o’clock comes. The workers quit for the 
day. The mills, with the exception of the great 
electric furnaces in the steel mills and smelters, 
close down their machinery. But at the same 
time has come a great demand from another 
source. The people must get home. The trans- 
portation electric load swells. The residential 
districts are again demanding electricity for 


10 


lighting and cooking. His load shifts over to that 
side. Up until 6 P. M. it may sag a trifle, while 
the industrial load has eased, but then the great 
demand comes for the evening lighting of the 
homes, and it picks up again. 

Then comes 9 o’clock. The children have been 
put to bed. Many lights have been darkened. 
The load sags; 10 o’clock and many grown-ups 
are going to bed and it sags more; 11 o’clock and 
the majority are in bed and the demand now is 
far below that of an hour before. The great 
engines in the power plant can be eased up a bit, 
given a little rest, when repairs and cleaning can 
be done for a repetition of this giving of service 
in the morning. 

What the electric manager saw, the gas and 
telephone and transportation traffic men saw 
similarly, their line changing only to represent 
the happenings in their particular branch of giv- 
ing service. 


Governmental Regulation: 


Electric light and power companies are regu- 
lated as are other public utilities such as gas, 
street railway and telephone companies. In prac- 
tically every state in the union they are regulated 
by state commissions created for that purpose. 

In Illinois the regulatory body is the Mlinois 
Commerce commission. Illinois has had state 
regulation since Jan. 1, 1914, when the Illinois 
Public Utilities commission came into existence 
under an act passed by the state legislature dur- 
ing the previous year. In 1921 the legislature 
modified the law to some extent and changed the 
name of the regulatory body to the Illinois Com- 
merce commission. This commission exercises 
supervision over the rates and service of the util- 
ities. The theory of these commissions is that 
they will be impartial judges in all controver- 
sies which might arise, so that no stumbling 
blocks may be thrown in the way of proper and 
continuous development of the various utility 
services for all of the people. 


How Investors Money Builds 
Public Utilities: 


In one important respect the public utility is 
unlike almost any other business in the nation. 
The electric light and power, gas, telephone, 
street railway and steam railroad systems have 
had to be built with money continuously obtained 
from investors. Under the prevailing system of 
regulation they can make no “profits” in the 
sense other businesses do. 

They are allowed only to charge such rates as 
will permit of the earning of operating expenses, 
plus a fair return on the money invested in their 
properties. Consequently all additions and ex- 
tensions must be financed by the sale of new se- 
curities to thrifty investors. 

Whereas, in ordinary businesses—a dry goods 
merchant for example—the merchant may rea- 
sonably expect to turn over his capital (buy and 





sell a complete stock of goods) three to five times 
each year, the utility business receives from its 
customers, each year, approximately one-fifth 
of the money its property represents. 

The most common form of financing utility 
companies is through the issuance of bonds— 
which are mortgages on the actual property—to 
the extent of 50 to 60 per cent of the value of the 
property ; and through the sale of preferred stock, 
on which there is a definite, fixed earning or divi- 
dend rate, to a total of about 25 per cent of the 
property value; and through sale of common 
stock, which is income-bearing only from earn- 
ings accruing alter payment of bond interest and 
preferred stock dividends, to the value of the bal- 
ance of the property holdings. 


Schools Now Hold Generations That 
Must Carry on the Utilities: 


Service of these commodities necessary to 
modern life does not begin, nor end, with the 
mere installation of power plants, distributing 
plants, the maze of equipment, nor the building 
up of great bodies of employes as the operating 
forces. 

There are three fundamental elements back of 
all this: 

1. Individual brains: this is personified in the 
man who sees the possibilities of rendering 
service to a community; who devotes his 
time, experience and brains to skillfully 
planning that service to meet needs; who 
interests people having money in his “big 
idea,’ organizes a company and gives the 
public the benefits of his initiative. 

2. The investors: Those of the state and 
nation, who having thriftily saved their 
earnings, become interested and purchase 
securities—stocks or bonds—in the com- 
pany in the expectation that it will be suc- 
cessful and will earn profits for them in 
return for the savings they have loaned to- 
ward financing this plant that is to render 
public service indiscriminately to all per- 
sons of a community. 


3. The inventors: The geniuses who made 
possible the great machines and wonderful 
apparatus that is necessary to produce 
service, and who are constantly striving 
for improvement, they too expecting finan- 
cial reward for their labors. 


These three elements of service form an un- 
breakable chain. All three are interdependent. 
Should any one of them become discouraged, de- 
velopment would immediately lag and the natio 
would be the loser. . 


In the schools today are those who in the future 
must “carry on’; who must soon be in the har- 
ness working out the problems of light, heat, 
transportation and communication for the nation 
and the world; problems that will be no less 
complex than those which the great pioneers 


11 


have faced. The tremendous fight of the pioneers 
—those of the “first generation,” the men with 
the vision—who convinced the world that such 
“absurdities” as electric lighting, electric power, 
street cars that moved by invisible power, tele- 
phone wires that could carry a voice over un- 
limited spaces, gas that could actually be piped 
and made to cook, heat and operate great fac- 
tories, were in reality possible, and through over- 
coming incredibility and actual superstition made 
possible a revolution of home, commercial and 
industrial life, has not ended. Within the next 
ten years the demands of the nation for service 
will probably be double those of today as a result 
of the more complex civilization, increase in pop- 
ulation and need of more intensive and econom- 
ical production. 


Definitions of Electrical Terms: 
AN OHM :— 


The practical unit of electrical resistance. 
is named for G. S. Ohm, the German scientist. 

Illustration: The difficulty with which water 
flows through a pipe is determined by the size, 
shape, length and smoothness, etc., of the pipe. 
This difficulty with which current flows along 
a wire is determined by the size, length and ma- 
terial of the wire. The electrical resistance is 
measured in ohms. 


AN AMPERE:— 

A unit of measurement to determine the rate 
of flow of electric current along a wire. It is 
named after A. M. Ampere, French mathemati- 
cian. 


Illustration: The rate at which water flows 
through a pipe which may be checked by open- 
ing any faucet and measuring what comes out is 
generally measured in gallons per minute. The 
rate of flow of electric current is measured by 
Amperes. 


A VOLT :— 

A volt represents the force required to cause 
a current of one ampere to flow when applied to 
a circuit of unit resistance. The name is derived 
from Volta, the Italian physicist. 

Illustration: The flow of electric current in a 
single circuit is just about the same thing as the 
flow of water through a pipe. The three princi- 
pal elements are found under practically iden- 
tical circumstances, namely, pressure imposed to 
induce flow; rate of flow and resistance to flow. 
Pressure exerted to send electricity along a wire 
is sometimes known as “electro-motive-force” 
and is measured in volts. 


AN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC UNIT :— 

A system of units based upon the attraction or 
repulsion between magnetic poles, employed to 
measure quantity, pressure, etc., in connection 
with electric currents. 


A WATT :— 
A watt is the unit of electrical power produced 
when one ampere of current flows with an elec- 


It 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


tric pressure of one volt applied. A watt is equal 
approximately to 1/746 of one horse-power, or 
one horse-power is equal to 746 watts. It de- 
rives its name from James Watt, a Scottish engi- 
neer and inventor. 


A KILO-WATT :— 

A unit of electric power, equal to one thousand 
watts, especially applied to the output of dyna- 
mos. Electric power is usually expressed in kilo- 
watts. As the watt is equal to 1/746 horse-power, 
the kilowatt equals 1000/746 or 1.34 horse-power. 

Kilo is of Greek origin and means one thou- 
sand. A kilowatt is one thousand watts. 


A KILOWATT HOUR:— 

A kilowatt hour means the work performed by 
one kilowatt of electric power during an hour's 
time. 


HORSE-POWER:— 

A unit of mechanical power; the power re- 
quired to raise 550 pounds to the height o{ one 
foot in one second, or 33,000 pounds to that 
height in a minute. Horse-power involves three 
elements; force, distance and time. If we ex- 
press the force in pounds and the distance passed 
through in feet, it is the solution of and the 
meaning for the term “foot pounds.” Hence a 
foot pound is a resistance equal to one pound 
moved one foot. 

James Watt, Scotch inventor, was asked how 
many horses his engines would replace. To ob- 
tain data as to actual performance in continuous 
work, he experimented with powerful horses, and 
found that one traveling 214 miles per hour, or 
220 feet per minute, and harnessed to a rope lead- 
ing over a pulley and down a vertical shait could 
haul up a weight averaging 100 pounds, equaling 
22,000 foot pounds per minute. 

To give good measure, Watt increased the 
measurement by 50 per cent, thus getting the 
familiar unit of 33,000 minute foot pounds. 


HORSE-POWER ELECTRIC :— 

A unit of electrical work, expressed in watts. 
It is equal to 746 watts. To express the rate of 
doing electrical work in mechanical horse-power 
units, divide the number of watts by 746. 


ELECTRICAL CURRENT :— 
Current is the term applied to a flow of elec- 
tricity through a conductor. 


DIRECT CURRENT :— 

Direct or continuous current flows constantly 
in one direction. Because of this it cannot be 
sent any great distance, hence its use is limited 
to congested centers of thickly populated cities. 
It can be stored in storage batteries and so is ad- 
vantageous for emergency use from such sources 
of supply. 

ALTERNATING CURRENT :— 

Alternating current flows first in one direction, 
then reverses, but in commercial circuits the al- 
ternations are so fast that the changes cannot 


12 


HU 


be detected in an electric light bulb by the naked 
eye. Alternating current can be sent economic- 
ally over comparatively great distances, and, 
therefore, is now used almost universally. 


eS eee 
THE PART ELECTRICITY PLAYED 
IN THE MAKING OF THIS BOOK 


The Type—Set by an electric machine. 

The Illustrations—Electricity furnished the bright arti- 
ficial light, drying heat and current used in the engrav- 
ing process. 





Electrotypes—Made by electrically depositing copper 


on wax moulds. 
The Printing—The presses were run by electricity. 


Folding—An electric folding machine saved hours of 
hand-labor. 


Binding—The machines that stitched the 
run by electricity. 


Cutting—Electric 
the proper size. 


How to Use This Bulletin: 


NOTE—There are four ends of speech, or in 
other words, four purposes for which men speak: 
first, to make an idea clear; second, to make an 
idea impressive ; third, to make men believe some- 
thing, that is, to convince; and, lastly, to lead 
men to action. 

Rhetoric, Oral English, and Current Topics 
Classes: Suggested topics for theme writing; 
Oral English and Current Topics discussions. 


pages were 


paper cutters trimmed the pages to 


1. To make an Idea Clear: 
Describe the Electrical Equipment of -this 
Community. 

2. To Make an Idea Impressive: 


A—The New World Created by Electrical 
Inventions. 


B—The Influence of Super-power or Inter- 
connection of Electric Transmission Lines on 
the United States. 

3. To Convince: 


Debate. Resolved: That Electricity Has 
Had a Greater Effect Upon Human Life 
Than Have the Railroads. 


4. To Secure Action: 


ped City in the State. 
Other Topics: : 
1. An Electrically Equipped Hort) G 
Z. Some New Uses for Electricity. 


Ht LIBRAP 


Make Our City the Best Electrically Equip- 
RARY OF TH 


4 
1928 


Mt 


2 


Xe 


Ts} 
4 


3. A Short Story of Edison’s Bite) P51'% 8f Uj inate 


4. Possibilities and Limitations of Electricity 
Generated by Water Power. 

Debate: 

1. Large Central Station Systems Are Pref- 
erable to Many Smaller Plants. 

2. That Thomas A. Edison Is America’s 
Greatest Inventor. 


